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“Let me pull my horse over so I don’t get charged with distracted driving,” Len Crow says from his cellphone near Turner Valley. He’s riding horseback from northern Alaska to Guadalajara, Mexico – an 11,000-kilometre trek – in the hopes of raising $1 million for orphanages in five countries.

Amie Kristen Nottebrock was escorted out of court on Monday to begin serving her 4 1/2 year prison sentence for what all parties agree was one horrific night of bad choices that led to the deaths of two people. Nottebrock had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit when she sped through a red light at between 135 and 145 kilometres per hour in an 80-km/h zone and struck another vehicle, killing its driver Arshdeep Singh Brar, 20, and her passenger Danielle Victoria Russell, 21, on Jan. 8, 2012.

Enmax is outsourcing dozens of jobs related to its billing and customer-care operations, but a spokesperson said customers who contact the utility company will continue to speak to local customer service representatives in Calgary.

CALGARY — Shares in Niko Resources Ltd. bounced back Tuesday after dropping 55 per cent on Monday as confusion continued about the implications of a new natural gas price regime in India. The Calgary-based explorer’s most valuable asset is a 10 per cent stake in an offshore oil and gas joint venture led by operator Reliance Industries Ltd. of India and including British major BP PLC.

CALGARY — Shares in Niko Resources Ltd. were more than halved Monday as investors reacted to a new natural gas pricing formula by the Indian national government. Stock in the Calgary-based company plunged 40 cents or 55 per cent to 33 cents per share — at one time, they traded for more than $100 each.

CALGARY — Oilsands giant Suncor Energy Inc. is sending its first ocean tanker loaded with western Canadian heavy crude to Europe, a spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. Sneh Seetal said the shipment is being made from the port of Sorel-Tracy on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec but would not say who the buyer is, where or when the ship is going in Europe, how much oil is involved, whether the heavy oil originates in the oilsands or even whether it has all been produced from Suncor operations.

Canadian hospitals risk fatal outbreaks and rising costs from a “nightmare” bacteria unless they begin routine screening and precautionary isolation of high-risk patients, warns an international expert on drug-resistant bugs. A recent study by microbiologist Johann Pitout and his team of researchers at Calgary Laboratory Services found a dozen cases at health care facilities in Alberta over the last three years where patients were infected with microbes that even antibiotics of last resort could not kill.

EDMONTON — Tory leadership candidate Jim Prentice says that if he becomes premier next month, he will conduct an immediate review of Alberta’s foreign trade offices to address complaints they have not been effective. Prentice told reporters this week the review could result in staff changes and foreign offices being relocated or shut down.

You know you’re venturing into difficult waters with your latest novel. That’s because you want to create a compelling work of fiction about the elusive, often indefinable processes involved in the act of writing itself.

Opera tends toward broken hearts and tragic endings. After all, it really isn’t opera if the heroine who fell in love with the inappropriate man doesn’t die a gruesome death in the end, whether by her own hand, consumption, or some other grisly demise, is it?

Fish and chips dredged in a chickpea batter. Korean fried chicken bathed in a spicy gochujang sauce. Miso-glazed halibut on soba noodles with citrus-dashi broth. Mozzarella agedashi with ume paste and basil tempura. Scallop carpaccio with sesame oil and ginger. Call it Asian fusion or contemporary Asian or even modern Canadian. Whatever the name, the East-meets-West combination of Asian and European ingredients and techniques is one of the big trends in the culinary scene across North America these days. And it’s a style that’s influencing chefs and new restaurants around Calgary.

Calgarians, if this isn’t on your bucket list, it should be — hopping around the globe on a private jet. This unique experience, from Travel Guild Inc., takes off from Calgary on Nov. 3, visiting nine destinations that include Anchorage, South Korea, Borneo, Singapore, India, U.A.E., Malta, Morocco and Iceland.

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